According to a report from the BBC, 5 rhinos in South Africa are have had GPS tracking devices installed in their horns. Here is some from the BBC article:

Five rhinos in South Africa’s North West province have been fitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS) device to help protect them from poachers.

The GPS chip is fitted into the rhino’s horn by drilling a small hole in the inert or dead part of the horn.

As well as GPS tracking, the device is equipped with alarm systems to alert game wardens of unusual movement or if a rhino is outside of the park.

The North West Park Board is testing the devices in Mafikeng Game Reserve.

To be honest, I am not sure how this will protect them from the poachers, but at the very least it will allow the authorities to track the horns after they have been taken out. Here is some more from the article about how the authorities are planning on using the device:

“It’s basically a satellite system which connects with the cell phone system and we can monitor the animals on whatever time delay we want,” Rusty Hustler, head of security for North West Parks Board, told BBC News.

“There are a number of alarms that can be programmed: one for excessive movement, so if the rhino starts running, and another that goes off if the rhino sleeps for longer than six hours, which is abnormal.”

So there is some geofencing technology built into this that is supposed to protect the rhinos. Again, I’m not sure what they are thinking the geofencing will do for the rhinos but at least they can do it.

Here is the article from the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9116000/9116106.stm

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